1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote control method and related device, and more particularly, to a method of performing remote awaking through wireless communication and related device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A wireless communication system usually includes multiple access point devices, each of which wirelessly communicates with one or more user devices, such as a mobile phone, a laptop, and other mobile devices. The user devices include a wireless network interface card (WNIC) for dealing with wireless signals, such as frequency scanning, wireless packet detection and transmission, from the access point devices.
Generally, the user devices are cable of performing power management and include at least a normal mode and a sleep mode (or a power saving mode). In the normal mode, all of hardware and software devices in the user device work normally and provide all of needed hardware and software functions. In the sleep mode, the user device disables most of hardware and software devices for power saving purpose.
Remote control is a function allowing a user to control a local device through a wired/wireless network, by using a remote control device. The remote control usually includes a wake-up operation which allows the user to wake up a communication device at a terminal B by operating a communication device at a terminal A. To awake the communication device at the terminal B, the software of the communication device at the terminal A has to transmit a packet corresponding to a wake-up packet format, to the access point device to which the communication device at the terminal B belongs through a wired or a wireless network. The access point device continuously sends beacons. Accordingly, the communication device at the terminal B sends a specific packet to the access point device when it enters the sleep mode, to maintain coupling with the access point device. To put it in another way, by beacons and the packets sent back from the communication device at the terminal B, the access point device can perceive that the communication device at the terminal B still exists in the wireless network. When the access point device finds the communication device at the terminal B, the access point device immediately sends the wake-up packet to awake the communication device at the terminal B.
According to the prior art, the access point device must actively inquire the status of the communication device at the terminal B and passively wait for the response from the communication device at the terminal B to be informed about the existence status of the communication device at the terminal B. This, however, imposes large workload on the access point device and therefore causes the procrastination of the wake-up process.